Jerusalem, thou city built on high!

Full Text

1 Jerusalem, thou city built on high!
Oh that I were in thee:
With full desire my heart doth upward fly,
Nor longer rests in me.
Far over dale and mountain,
Far o’er the earth’s wide field,
My heart to God ascending,
Itself to Him doth yield.

2 O glorious city! thee my spirit hails:
Unfold thy gates of grace:
With long delay my heart within me fails,
For you, pure dwelling place!
Forth from this day of evil
Life which I scarcely live,
I seek that land of promise
Which God to me doth give.

T3 he elders there and prophets’ noble band,
And Christ’s whole company,
Who bear the cross’ yoke at His command,
For Him prepared to die—
I see in joyous freedom,
And glory sweeping by:
All with bright beams surrounded,
As suns they shine on high.

4 When at the last I thither shall ascend
To that bright paradise,
The joy shall fill my heart that knows no end;
Praise from my lips shall rise.
The blest their hallelujahs
In glory there prolong,
And raise their glad hosannas
In everlasting song.

Author: Johann M. Meyfart

Meyfart, Johann Matthäus, was born Nov. 9, 1590 at Jena, during a visit which his mother (wife of Pastor Meyfart of Wablwinkel, near Waltershausen, Gotha) was paying to her father. He studied at the Universities of Jena (M.A. 1611; D.D. 1624) and Wittenberg, and was thereafter for some time adjunct of the philosophical faculty at Jena. In 1616, he was appointed professor in the Gymnasium at Coburg and in 1623 director; and during his residence at Coburg was a great moral power. When his colleagues in the Gymnasium made a complaint to the government regarding a dissertation (De disciplina ecclesiastica) which he published in 1633, he accepted the offer of the professorship of theology in the revived University of Erfurt. He entered on his w… Go to person page >

Translator: Arthur T. Russell

Arthur Tozer Russell was born at Northampton, March 20, 1806. He entered S. John's College, Cambridge, in 1824, took the Hulsean Prize in 1825, and was afterwards elected to a scholarship. He was ordained Deacon in 1829, Priest in 1830, and the same year was appointed Vicar of Caxton. In 1852, he was preferred to the vicarage of Whaddon. In 1863, he removed to S. Thomas', Toxteth Park, near Liverpool, and in 1867, to Holy Trinity, Wellington, Salop. He is the editor and author of numerous publications, among them several volumes of hymns.
--Annotations of the Hymnal, Charles Hutchins, 1872.… Go to person page >